In 1923, West Hartford property owners and town officials objected to Jacob Goldberg's application to build a grocery store at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Ardmore Road (shown in blue), much smaller than the West Hartford Armory next door (shown in red). Although Goldberg eventually won and opened the Kingswood Market, this dispute motivated West Hartford to become the first municipality in Connecticut to enact zoning in 1924. View the rapid growth of real estate development on Ardmore Road by comparing Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for 1917 and 1923. Ardmore Road was only a proposed street in 1917. Six years later, after the land was subdivided and the street and sewer lines were completed, at least 8 homes had been constructed, with room for many more. Three years later, a total of 43 homes were built by 1926, according to the city directory listing.

Sources: Sanborn map collection digitized by Library of Congress. Interactive map developed by Ilya Ilyankou and Jack Dougherty at Trinity College. View source details and software code on GitHub. Learn more at OnTheLine.trincoll.edu.